As many as 200 militants were reported killed on Sunday in a violent clash between rival jihadist groups in north-east Nigeria. The fighting broke out in Dogon Chiku on the shores of Lake Chad, a tense border area where Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon meet.
The lake basin’s riverine channels are key operational zones for militants, who also raise revenue by taxing fishers, loggers and herders. Local accounts say ISWAP fighters suffered the heavier losses and that Boko Haram fighters seized several boats used in the attack. A member of a local vigilante group cooperating with the military said around 200 ISWAP fighters were killed, while a Nigerian intelligence source put the toll at more than 150.
ISWAP split from Boko Haram in 2016 and pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Since then the two factions have clashed repeatedly across the Lake Chad basin and elsewhere in northern Nigeria as multiple armed groups compete for territory and resources.
The changing geography of Lake Chad has intensified those contests. The UN Environment Programme estimates the lake has shrunk by more than 90 percent since the 1960s, and as water recedes new routes and contested areas emerge.
Analysts have long portrayed ISWAP as better resourced and more disciplined, while Boko Haram has been effective at holding pockets of territory around the lake. Sunday’s confrontation is among the deadliest reported between the groups.
Past high-profile episodes include ISWAP’s 2021 assault on Sambisa Forest, Boko Haram’s former stronghold, where Abubakar Shekau is believed to have died. In late 2022 and early 2023 Boko Haram also launched major raids on ISWAP bases in Borno state, seizing weapons and reportedly killing more than 100 fighters.
The broader conflict tied to these jihadist movements stretches back to the 2009 extrajudicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf and has since killed more than 40,000 people and displaced some 2 million in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north-east.
